Abandoned Dreams
by Midorino Mizu
Summary: An X/Greenwood Crossover. Sumeragi Subaru is summoned to Ryokurin Hall to deal with a spirit. This is not unusual for the onmyouji. What is unusual is the person who summoned him.
1. Chapter 1

__

Author's Note: Well, I've entered the realm of crossovers. And being me, I decided to cross X with an apparently obscure series, Koko wa Greenwood_. Since this is apparently the case, I'm going to try explaining _Greenwood's_ basic premise. As it'll be difficult to understand, otherwise._

Greenwood_ is a six episode OVA based on a much longer manga. I've never been able to get my hands on the manga, unfortunately, so everything I've written is based on the anime. In the anime, Hasukawa Kazuya starts high school at Ryokuto Academy a month late, after giving himself an ulcer from excessive angst. Hoping to find life a little more normal at school than at home, he's alarmed, to say the least, when he discovers his roommate looks exactly like a girl, and his nearest neighbors are insane schemers._

In episode three, one of his neighbors, Ikeda Mitsuru, acquires a fangirl of the dead sort, Misako, who refuses to leave until she gets what she wants. Not that she's too forthcoming on that account. But I digress.

The basic premise of this story is that Misako never moves on, and the boys are forced to call in the experts. Namely, Sumeragi Subaru.

****

Abandoned Dreams

Midorino Mizu

There was a resounding crash. The lights began to flicker. Voices raised heatedly.

"Quick, apologize to her!" insisted Hasukawa. "Do you want the dorm to end up a pile of rubble?"

"Oh, shut up," snarled Mitsuru uncharacteristically. "Do you have _any_ idea what it's like? At least the other girls can't get in the dorm. She goes everywhere with me, and it's got to stop!" He stomped off, intent on getting away from the girl-ghost and all her supporters.

At the last minute, Ikeda Mitsuru turned back. "And, no, I _will not_ apologize! I'm getting away from here."

The front door slammed, and Misato's wails got even louder.

Inside his own room, Tezuka Shinobu looked up from the book he had been reading. The only indication of any emotion stirring within him was the almost imperceptible tightening of his lips.

Something had to be done.

***

For the fourth time that evening, Sumeragi Subaru attempted to explain trigonometry to Shirou Kamui.

Not that he'd ever understood advanced math anyway, even when he had been in school. But Kamui was even more miserable at it than he had been, and that was saying something.

Subaru felt the new presence in his room before Kamui did, and certainly before Ijyuin Akira thought to clear his throat to alert them to his presence.

CLAMP Campus' perpetually innocent treasurer smiled weakly as he met the direct green gaze of the Sumeragi. "A fax came through for you, Sumeragi-san," he informed the other man as he hesitantly stepped into the room. He handed the single sheet of paper over to Subaru, intent on escaping as quickly and quietly as he had arrived. "You can feel free to use the telephone in Nokoru's office if you need privacy.

Subaru nodded absently, already intent on the words on the page in front of him. "Thank you, Ijyuin-san," he murmured. "Kamui," he added looking up to meet the teenager's violet eyes. "I'm afraid I'll have to postpone the tutoring until another time."

Akira peered over Kamui's thin shoulder and visibly brightened. "Oh! Tangents! I can help you with this," he stated. "Unless you'd rather I didn't?"

Kamui's eyes widened to near saucer-sized. "No, no, no," he said, gesturing in such a way as to make it obvious that any assistance would be welcome. "Please! I have an exam on Friday, and I don't understand anything."

"Well," Akira began, "it's really quite simple"

Maybe, Subaru thought as he walked soundlessly down the hall towards the Imonoyama's private office, Kamui would be able to get tutoring from the much more math-proficient Akira. He certainly wasn't much help. And at the moment, he had this rather strange fax to contend with.

Most of the faxes he received were either through his grandmother or the government directly. This didn't fall into either category.

It read:

__

Subaru-san,

I apologize if this communication seems abrupt, but it seems I am in need of your services.

I should introduce myself. I am Tezuka Shinobu, son of Tezuka Setsuko, who was, before her marriage to my father, Sumeragi Setsuko.

The problem I am confronted with is in the form of a spirit that is haunting my roommate, and causing problems for the entire dormitory, Ryokurin Hall, at Ryokuto Academy.

Any assistance you could provide would be appreciated.

Tezuka Shinobu

Tezuka, mused Subaru. At least in his memory, that entire affair had been very interesting,

He'd not been born when Setsuko-san had wed businessman Tezuka Hidekazu, but he remembered the details had been unearthed around the time of her youngest child's birth.

His grandmother had apparently been vehemently against the marriage. Sumeragi did not, under any circumstances, marry people who did not respect the Clan's position. When Setsuko chose to do so, she was disowned immediately.

Tezuka had forbidden his wife contact with her family, preferring to keep that connection as buried as possible. The cold businessman did not regard the Sumeragi position as being one he desired; he didn't believe in the existence of spirits.

Despite this, news managed to filter back to Kyoto whenever something monumental occurred in Setsuko-san's life; at the birth of her three children, Akira, Nagisa, and Shinobu, and of course, at her death.

The son, thought Subaru, as he pushed open the door of Imonoyama Nokoru's office, must be very different than the father, if he even bothered to acknowledge the presence of a ghost.

He would discover that to be both true and false.

***

Ikeda Mitsuru eyed his roommate warily. He'd taken a walk, in order to get some air, put some distance between himself and his situation.

For that, he'd gotten recriminations from both Hasukawa and Shun. And while he hardly expected Shinobu to react _that_ way, he had thought that he would at least react in some way. Some form of chastisement, or something.

But there had been nothing. Shinobu had smiled at him when he came back, and then silently went back to his reading.

Shinobu had yet to say a word to him, Mitsuru realized. And that was very unusual. 

Shinobu was plotting something. And he was leaving Mitsuru out of it. That simply wouldn't do.

But just as he opened his mouth to interrogate the smirking student council president, the P.A. system sounded.

"Tezuka Shinobu, Room 211," came the dorm mother's disapproving voice. "You have a phone call."

Shinobu silently marked his place in his book and rose to his feet, walking almost swiftly across the room. When he reached the door, he lifted an eyebrow at his roommate.

"Isn't that paper due tomorrow?" he inquired. At his roommate's dark scowl, he laughed lightly, and headed down the hall. "You should get started on it, then. You know that Etsuko-sensei won't let you off."

Mitsuru huffed and turned back to his pile of Japanese history books. Shinobu was right, but that didn't help his situation any.

He still wanted to know what was going on.

***

Shinobu smiled in apology to the dorm mother before going into the private room the dorm provided for telephone calls. Students were not supposed to receive phone calls after hours, and normally she would have refused to call the student.

But something in the caller's quiet, polite voice refused to allow that.

"Hai?" asked Shinobu as he picked up the receiver.

"It's Sumeragi Subaru. I received your fax."

"Ah," replied Shinobu simply.

Subaru had somehow expected the teenager to be a little more forthcoming, but he pressed on nonetheless. "May I ask what exactly is 'haunting' Ryokurin Hall?" he asked, a thread of irritation creeping into his voice. He didn't particularly care to be summoned out of the blue, and then receive next to no cooperation from the other party.

Shinobu smiled slightly. "A sixteen-year-old girl, name of Misako. She's decided that she's in love with my roommate, Ikeda Mitsuru. It's causing difficulties for all of us."

"I see." Subaru paused. "Is there no other way of moving her on?"

"We tried that," replied Shinobu. "She insisted upon a kiss, from Mitsuru, and then moved on, for about a week."

"And then?"

"And then, she came back. With friends." Shinobu sighed slightly, and a little weariness seemed to enter his voice. "They've moved on, thankfully, but Misako has evidently decided to wait for Mitsuru's dying day." His voice hardened. "And that is _not_ acceptable."

"Hmm." Subaru mentally checked his schedule for the next day. The Dragons of Earth had been quiet lately, so he had nothing really pressing. "What time tomorrow would be suitable?"

"Four o' clock," said Shinobu instantly. "Mitsuru has band practice, after classes."

"Very well then." Subaru neatly wrote the time of the appointment down on the fax with one of Nokoru's elaborate fountain pens. "You can expect me then. See to any necessary clearances, please."

"Certainly, Subaru-san." Shinobu hesitated. "And, thank you for doing this. Our families are hardly on the best of terms."

"I can't say that it wasn't a surprise to hear from a Tezuka," conceded Subaru. "I'm surprised you even acknowledged the connection."

"I understood the necessity. Until tomorrow, then?"

"Yes."

Shinobu hung up the phone with a faint click. If the Sumeragi was surprised by Shinobu's request for assistance, then his father would have been furious. Tezuka Hidekazu despised everything his wife's family stood for, and it was only for her beauty and grace that he tolerated the connection. Any contact between Tezuka and Sumeragi had always been, and would always be, strictly forbidden.

Shinobu had always found ways to work around the forbidden, however, and his father's all-encompassing edicts didn't phase him.

Especially when the welfare and relative sanity of his friends was at stake.

***

Mitsuru barely glanced up as Shinobu strolled back into their room a bare fifteen minutes after he had left it. Nothing seemed different; his customary smirk was in place.

Sometimes, Shinobu's ability to keep an impassive mask up, no matter what the situation, was useful. Sometimes it just was an irritant.

This was one of the latter times.

Mitsuru studiously pretended to go back to taking notes on the Takagushi Era in Medieval Japan and It's Effect on Modern Japanese Life as his roommate sat back down and opened his book again. He was _not_ going to ask Shinobu anything. He wasn't. Really.

His self-restraint lasted exactly 16 seconds. Shinobu counted.

"So, who was on the telephone?" asked the other teenager with deliberate casualness that didn't fool his roommate at all.

"A cousin," replied Shinobu softly. "He's coming to visit tomorrow."

Mitsuru's blond eyebrows climbed high on his forehead as he contemplated that statement. Shinobu's relative--that immediately brought to mind Nagisa, his psycho dominatrix sister. And then there was Misako, Mitsuru's own devoted, and very dead, admirer.

The combination couldn't be healthy for anyone concerned. 

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" the purple-eyed one ventured. "I mean, with Misako and all?"

Shinobu slanted a gray-green gaze at his nervous-looking roommate of two years, and his perpetual smile widened a bit.

"Have you ever known me to have a bad idea?"

Oh yes, Mitsuru thought, this could be very bad, indeed.

***

Subaru stared down at the sleek, state-of-the-art, _pink_ phone he'd just hung up, and shook his head as if to clear it. That conversation had been oddly normal, for him at least. He'd actually spoken more than a sentence to someone without feeling compelled to do so. 

And he felt interested in another human being, for the first time in years. Most people were just there, never really registering on the Sumeragi's radar, with a few notable exceptions. His grandmother, Kamui, Hokuto, and, of course, Seishirou.

But no others. Until this newfound cousin of his, whom he sensed was both coldly controlled and wildly passionate. 

Tomorrow afternoon, if nothing else, would be one of the first jobs he actually looked forward to in ages, thought Subaru as he walked down the hall, stuffing his hands into his pockets.

He stepped through the doorway of his suite, and was surprised to find it occupied only by Shirou Kamui. Where was Akira-san?"

Kamui glanced up towards the door, despite Subaru's customary silence. His eyes were bewildered.

"Look, Subaru-san, the answers are actually _right_. And I even think I might know why! That's never happened before."

Maybe Kamui could explain it to him then, Subaru thought dryly. For he certainly wasn't ever going to understand the point of tangents, cosines, and sines. 

"Amazing," the green-eyed man said in response to the younger boy's comment. Then he turned to stare out his window.

Normally, Kamui took that as his cue to leave. Subaru, for some reason known only to him, liked to stare at the lights of Tokyo when he needed to think. And if he wanted to think, he normally didn't want company.

Despite this foreknowledge, Kamui cocked his head to one side, letting chocolate-brown locks fall into his eyes. "What are you thinking about, Subaru-san?"

"A job," replied Subaru absently as he scanned the glittering artificial stars of his city. It was so beautiful, and yet so false.

"The one that came through tonight?" persisted Shirou-kun. He loved to hear about Subaru's jobs, be they past or present. "What kind of situation is it?"

Subaru slid indulgent emerald eyes towards the boy. "Yes, that job. A ghost is haunting boys' high school. It should be fairly straight-forward, I imagine."

"Then what intrigues you?"

"The request came from an unusual source. From a branch of the family that doesn't acknowledge the Sumeragi as having any power."

"Oh," said Kamui. He frowned. "Then, why did they call you?"

"It seems the son sees more than the black and white world of his father. He also sees the shades of gray." He turned to eye the Dragon of Heaven more fully. He was visibly drooping. "You should go to bed. Class tomorrow and all. And I need to prepare for the job, no matter how routine it might be."

It was a clear dismissal, Kamui reflected with a sigh. And Subaru was right, it was getting late.

He needed his rest if he was going to survive Sorata's wake-up call in the morning.

***

Subaru stopped in front of an old, well-kept stone building, clearly identified as Ryokurin Hall. Or Greenwood, Shinobu-san had informed him the previous evening.

With a sigh, Subaru pushed open the front door and stepped in. He was beginning to feel some trepidation, but he wasn't entirely sure if that was from the job or from the prospect of meeting another relative.

The Sumeragi were a large clan, and Subaru had been intimidated by the constant flow of relations for most of his youth.

Blinking away his reverie, Subaru smiled gently at the middle-aged woman manning the front desk. He bowed slightly to her.

"I'm Sumeragi Subaru. I've come to visit my cousin, Tezuka Shinobu." He prayed fervently that she didn't recognize his name, and pepper him with questions. Sumeragi was not a common surname, and though they weren't as visible as they had once been, some people still knew what the name meant.

He was lucky today, for she merely smiled.

"Ah! Shinobu-san mentioned you might be visiting go on up. His room is 211, one floor up, and to the right." She took his white coat, turning to hang it up. "Have a nice visit!"

"Yes," said absently as he walked towards the wooden stairs, unconsciously sidestepping a young man who was carrying down a red motorcycle.

Continuing his quiet tread down the hall, Subaru ignored the sounds around him, the blood-curdling screams that came from the dorm room cum video arcade. Apparently, someone was losing. He knew that sound well. Sorata usually yelled that way when Imonoyama-san got the best of him in a video game. Which was most of the time, really.

He paused in front of room 211, and was about to knock, when the door was flung open exuberantly.

"Konnichiwa!" called a sunny voice. "You must be Sumeragi-san."

Subaru just stared. He could have sworn that Ryokuto Academy was a _boys_ school.

"I'm Kisaragi Shun," said the vision with the long pale pink hair. "I live next door."

"And he's a guy, despite appearances" came a groggy voice from inside the room. "Uh, Shinobu, _why_ am I so tired?"

"Because," came a soft, pragmatic voice, "you stayed up until four a.m. writing your history term paper. That was announced at the beginning of the semester."

Subaru stepped into the room just as a box of Kleenex hit a violet-haired boy reading at desk over the head.

"Always a smart ass," muttered a blond boy from his position of the bed.

Shinobu simply stood to greet his cousin. "Subaru-san."

"Shinobu-san," returned the Sumeragi. "Shall we get started, then?"

"Haaaiii!" caroled Shun.

Shun's roommate, Hasukawa Kazuya, scowled from his position in the doorway.

Ikeda mumbled something along the lines, "Anytime, I want a normal life back."

Shinobu's smile just widened a shade.

All in all, reflected Subaru, they were a group that would have fit in alarmingly well at Imonoyama Mansion.

***

Two hours later, Subaru was becoming frustrated, though he didn't allow it to show in either his expression or his demeanor. 

To begin with, it had taken Misako-san an hour to show up. And when she finally had, she proceeded to wax eloquent on how she must spent the years preceding her true love's death in a tragic limbo.

It was almost enough to make Subaru twitch. And, as it happened, it _was_ making Ikeda-san and Hasukawa-san twitch. Severely.

Subaru put on his best kindly-onmyouji expression, and proceeded to explain to Misako, for the third time, that it was perfectly acceptable to await her "true love" in the other realm. Honestly, he thought, spirits did it all the time.

"No!"

Subaru's gaze hardened, slightly. "I can force you to, you know."

Misako opened her mouth to wail, and three of the room's other four occupants dove to the floor in order to protect themselves from the ensuing damage. Shinobu didn't.

Subaru cut off the sixteen-year-olds cry with a single sharp movement of his hand. "Misako-san," he reproved.

He smiled softly. "I know that you haven't gotten everything you wanted in life. And every girl deserves the chance to fall in love. But," he faltered, thinking of Hokuto. "Not every girl gets that chance. It' sad, but it's reality.

"It's time to face your reality, Misako."

"But--" protested the blond girl half-heartedly. She knew what Subaru-san was telling her, had bee telling her all evening, was true. It didn't make leaving her dream of Mitsuru any easier.

"Misako," said Subaru patiently, "Mitsuru-san could never be yours."

Misako's shoulders sagged. "I know," she whispered. "But I don't have anything else."

"You'll make something else for yourself, then. A spirit always has a chance to do that." Those were words he'd believed in so fervently when he had been sixteen. He knew now that they weren't true for him, but perhaps they would be true for Misako.

She nodded, very slightly, and then bowed to the four boys she'd by turns amused and terrorized for several months. "I'm sorry for all the trouble I've caused you," she said softly. "I'll go on now." She rose her sea-colored eyes to meet Mitsuru's purple ones. "G-Goodbye, Mitsuru-kun."

Mitsuru smiled at her. He'd be relieved when Misako had left, but a little sad too, he thought. She'd just been there for so long. "Goodbye, Misako-chan. Be happy."

She nodded before looking again at Subaru. He smiled at her, and began to chant.

***

Soon after, Shinobu walked his cousin down the stairs. "Thank you," he said. "You didn't have to."

"No," agreed Subaru, slanting a glance at the younger man, "I didn't. Because you were probably capable of doing it yourself."

Shinobu shrugged. "I'm not trained. At least, not since my mother died."

"Hmm," said the Sumeragi thoughtfully. "Would you like to be?"

Shinobu's smile was a trifle sad. His father, with his steadfast rejection of anything spiritual, would kill his youngest son before allowing him to learn onmyoujitsu. "My father would never allow it. My mother made sure I knew enough to keep from making everything in the house explode. That will have to be enough, for me."

Subaru shrugged into his coat silently. Everyone, he thought, was tied down in some way. No one could become exactly what they wished. It was a cruel trick fate played on humanity; allowing it to have dreams and aspirations, but never letting those dreams be fully realized. 

He lifted a hand in farewell. "Ja ne, Shinobu-san."

"Ja ne, Subaru-san."

Long after his cousin left, Shinobu stood in the cold darkness staring after him. They were very much alike, hurt deeply by what life had dealt them. They each protected themselves with impenetrable masks.

They were just very different masks.

~fin

Back to Fiction


	2. Chapter 2

Shinobu was allowing himself to fall deeply into a funk, Mitsuru thought. And he had been doing so since his cousin had visited a few days ago.

It was difficult to read the differences in Tezuka Shinobu's moods, but after nearly three years of living in close company with him, Mitsuru felt fairly confident in his deciphering. When he was amused, his smile was a little wider and his eyes even occasionally twinkled. When he was sad, his eyes dulled, flattened, became more gray and less green. His smile would dim until it seemed barely there, at least to Mitsuru's more experienced eyes.

And when he was happy--well, Mitsuru wasn't sure that he had ever seen Shinobu actually happy. Or if Shinobu even knew what the emotion felt like.

He was probably the person Shinobu was closest to, reflected the blond boy as he pretended to focus on upper level calculus, but even _he _was at a loss as to his roommate's life before Greenwood. Shinobu never spoke of it, but his refusal to ever leave Tokyo spoke volumes. 

Clearly, the situation at home was as bad for Shinobu as it had been for his elder sister Nagisa, but an entirely different way. Tezuka Hidekazu neither expected nor wanted anything from his daughter; she was as good as nonexistent, as far as Tezuka-san was concerned. Shinobu, however, as a son was extremely important, even more so after his eldest son's defection.

Shinobu was to be the perfect reflection of his success, and it didn't much matter to Tezuka Hidekazu what that perfection cost the child.

It was costing Shinobu at least half of himself, thought Mitsuru grimly, and not for the first time. His father was a modern man, one who refused to acknowledge the spirits who had been as much a part of Japan as the sea that surrounded it. He rejected it, and he rejected the part of his son that was steeped in it.

The Sumeragi half, remembered Mitsuru. He didn't know too much about the onmyouji clan, but he vaguely recalled his father talking about them when he was younger.

It was, he thought as he stretched to his feet, a good day to call home. 

Shinobu didn't even look up as Mitsuru left the room.

***

Given his choice, Sumeragi Subaru would spend as little time as possible outdoors at CLAMP Campus. The squealing voices of teenaged girls seemed a deafening roar. In fact, there was only one reason Subaru was even outdoors now.

Imonoyama Mansion had a strictly enforced non-smoking policy.

Thus, the Sumeragi stood outside in the slightly chill air of late February and smoked a cigarette. He closed his eyes as he exhaled, and leaned his head against the cold stone of the Mansion's exterior walls.

His thoughts turned to his young cousin, as they often had in recent weeks. Tezuka Shinobu, Subaru mused, had things that he himself had always wanted. An existence in the "normal" world, where dealings with the supernatural and otherworldly were kept to a minimum. Several close friends, who would clearly protect him from anything they could.

By the same token, Shinobu had never had the things that Subaru had taken for granted most of his life. He had never had dreams and hopes, or at least they had never been allowed to grow. Subaru was not overly familiar with the world of Japanese financial business; he only knew enough about it to recognize the names of the most powerful brokers. He recognized Tezuka Hidekazu's name for two reasons: the obvious family connection, and because he was always a man who got what he wished.

Subaru could only imagine that any wishes that didn't coincide with Tezuka's own were quickly crushed and obliterated. Even those of his young son.

The result, thought Subaru, was showcased in Shinobu's gray-green eyes if anyone cared to look. The younger boy always had an almost blank smile on his face, and anyone who did not look in his eyes would have difficulty gauging his emotions. But in his cousin's eyes was a sadness and a bone-deep weariness that was all too familiar to Subaru.

It was an expression he saw every morning when he looked in the mirror. And he wished that there were something he could do to erase it from Shinobu's face.

He thought there was not likely any chance of that, however. Shinobu, like Subaru himself, was set on a path that was determined from birth. They were very different paths, but essentially they achieved the same thing. Broken dreams, discarded hopes, and a certain loss of self. 

Once lost, it was rare that it could be regained.

"Subaru?"

At the sound of the familiar teenaged voice, Subaru opened his eyes. Kamui stood before him, uncomfortably shifting the pile of textbooks in his arms from one side to another. As he pasted a soft smile on his lips, Subaru wondered how long the fifteen-year-old had been standing there.

"I'm sorry, Kamui. I was thinking of something."

"What were you thinking about?" asked Kamui hesitantly. "I mean, you seemed a little lost there."

For a moment, Subaru considered lying to Kamui. It would be easy; he could say just about anything, and make it believable. Just the same, sometimes he had a hard time lying to the boy. There was occasionally a slightly steely expression in his violet eyes that made Subaru feel as though he was lying to God.

"Shinobu," stated the Sumeragi very quietly.

It took Kamui a moment to puzzle out whom Subaru was speaking of. "Your cousin? Have you seen him lately?" He opened the door of the Imonoyama Mansion and stepped in, holding the door for Subaru to follow.

"No," answered Subaru, "but I was thinking of him anyway. He--" Subaru paused, toeing of his black boots and thinking of how best to say what he was thinking. "He reminds me of me," he said finally.

"Maybe you should try to help him, then," Kamui said matter-of-factly.

"I don't think that there is anyway that I can," returned Subaru softly.

Kamui stopped abruptly on the stairs. "What do you mean, Subaru?"

"There are some things that just cannot be changed, Kamui. You know that better than anyone." Subaru's quiet tone managed to erase any harshness from his words. All the same, he winced as soon as they left his lips. "Oh, Kamui, I--"

"Never mind, Subaru." Kamui cut off his apology with a wave of his hand. "I do know that, and probably better than anyone, that's true." His violet eyes darkened and he thought of how he'd learned that particular lesson. "But that doesn't mean that there aren't some things that can be changed." Kamui began the slow ascent up to his room again. He paused at the top of the stairs, and turned to look again at the older Seal.

"Help your cousin, Subaru. Even if it's only to prove to yourself that there are some things left in the world that can be changed."

Subaru stood there long after Kamui had disappeared down the upstairs hallway, staring after his teenaged leader.

Sometimes he forgot just how much Kamui was capable of understanding.

***

Mitsuru hung up the telephone with a quiet click and strolled out of the room with his hands stuck in his pockets.

His parents had been surprised to hear from him; they were always surprised to hear from him. He preferred it that way. He wasn't theirs to worry over, after all.

But there had been no one else he could ask about the Sumeragi. The only other person who would know was Shinobu, and he couldn't ask him.

He opened the door to their room and stared for a moment at his roommate, with the slightly discontented look still on his face. No, he corrected himself, it wasn't quite that.

It was a look of _remembered_ discontent, from a time before he'd given up on even that.

Without a word to Shinobu, Mitsuru crawled up into his bunk and flopped down on the mattress. He ignored his roommate in favor of replaying the conversation with his parents in his mind.

His mother had answered the telephone.

__

One thing that had been constant for all of his memory was his mother's voice. Not the tones, or the rhythms, but the complete sincerity of it. She was sincerely happy, or sincerely polite, or sincerely surprised.

Or in this case, all three.

"Mitsuru? I didn't expect to hear from you. Is everything all right?"

And, also, sincerely concerned. Because her eldest son would not call unless something was drastically wrong. And probably not even then. 

"Uh, yes, Mom, everything's fine. I just had some questionsfor a research project," Mitsuru improvised. "A report on Japanese spirituality."

"Which sort?" his mother inquired, this time with genuine amusement. Westerners, and these days, many Japanese, tended to lump the vast array of spiritual beliefs present in their country into a blanket category of "Spirituality." It didn't really work very well.

"Onmyoujitsu. Specifically, the Sumeragi Clan." Mitsuru put on his most earnest and most innocent tone. "I'm writing on the history of onmyouji and their influence in Japan."

"Well, that would certainly be the Sumeragi," murmured his mother. Mitsuru could hear the faint clink of china against steel, and knew his mother was making tea. There was a moment of silence while she ran water into a kettle and collected her thoughts. "Your father would really be a better one to ask, but he's teaching an evening seminar tonight at the university. So I guess you'll have to make do with me."

Mitsuru made a noncommittal sound that he hoped encouraged his mother to speak further.

"I don't really know much," his mother said again after another long pause. "ButI did meet the Clan Head once, when you and your brother were very young. He was called here to assist us with a wayward spirit. He was very young. Too young to be so sad."

"What was his name?" asked Mitsuru, even though he already knew.

"Sumeragi Subaru. He was such a beautiful young man. But he seemed to have lost his way."

"Lost his way," murmured Mitsuru absently. "I wonder if he's found it again."

"I doubt it," an unexpected but familiar voice drawled near his ear. Shinobu smiled as his blond roommate jolted out of his reverie to stare into his eyes. "People rarely can find their way once it's lost. At least, they can't find the same path again."

But they may be able to find another, thought Mitsuru to himself.

"You've been thinking up there for sometime," noted Shinobu as he dropped to the floor. "A couple of hours, at least. Are you plotting something without me?"

Mitsuru leaned down and smiled. "Yes."

"Ah." The other boy shrugged a he neatly stacked his schoolbooks and prepared for bed. Mitsuru saw by the glowing blue numbers on Shinobu's digital clock that it was past midnight.

He furrowed his golden eyebrows together. "Aren't you going to ask me about it?"

"No," stated Shinobu as he pushed his bed curtain aside. "I'm sure it'll be made clear soon enough."

He waited a couple of moments, listening to his roommate settle under his covers, waiting until Mitsuru was slipping into sleep, before delivering his next comment.

"You not too good at keeping secrets, after all."

Sleepy violet eyes staring at the blank ceiling, Mitsuru wondered again, for the thousandth time, if there would ever be a time when Shinobu would be unable to surprise him.

He hoped not.

***

Shirou Kamui was doing his homework alone. This in and of itself was actually something of a rarity; either he got his work done quickly and efficiently, during the school day, or he required an entire battalion of math tutors in order to complete it at all.

He had a history essay do the next day, and while he usually did such things in the Campus library during his lunch hour, Keiichi had dragged him outside and made him consume actual food.

Kamui scowled. Sometimes he didn't know which was worse, Sorata at home or Keiichi at school. Both of them had the occasionally annoying habits of relentlessly trying to cheer him up.

He didn't like to complain, but sometimes it would be nice to angst in relative peace.

With a deep sigh, Kamui shook his head, and applied himself to writing his paper on family structure in historic Japan.

Honda-sensei came up with the strangest themes.

Kamui had been writing for sometime, and had lost himself, if not in the subject matter, then the mind-numbing process of writing his essay. He didn't hear Takamura Suoh when he knocked, or when he knocked. Or the first two times he cleared his throat to gain Kamui's attention.

The third time was loud, irritated, and sounded more like a hacking cough than anything else.

Kamui lifted his eyes from the paper where he had been scribbling notes on matriarchies as opposed to patriarchies.

"Takamura-san! I didn't hear you come in."

Obviously, thought Suoh with some irritation. But there wasn't much use in chastising Kamui for his inattention and its possible consequences. The boy would probably just blink at him, and Suoh got enough of that reaction from Rijichou.

"You have a visitor. A student from Ryokuto Academy," he intoned instead.

Kamui furrowed his eyebrows. Ryokuto Academy, he recalled, was the boys' high school that Tezuka Shinobu attended. "You must be mistaken, Takamura-san. He's probably looking Subaru-san."

"No," stated Suoh, leaning against the doorjamb. "He's not. In fact, he specifically requested to speak to someone close to Sumeragi-san. And the one closest to him here is you." The ninja straightened up, and turned to leave the room. "I'll just send him up here, then."

Kamui opened his mouth to protest, and then shut it again with a faint snap. Tezuka-san was already here, after all, so he might as well talk to him. He bent down and gathered up his books and papers, turning to dump them on the desk in the corner of the room. He did wonder what the other boy wanted of him, though.

Hearing a light rustling, Kamui whipped his head around and widened his eyes. Standing just inside the door was a young man, wearing a boys school uniform of a blue jacket, white shirt, and red tie. He was several inches taller than Kamui, and had bright golden hair.

His eyes were exactly the shade of Kamui's own.

Unless there was a real quirk in the Sumeragi gene pool, this tall, golden teenaged boy could not possibly be related to Subaru.

"Who are you?" asked Kamui abruptly. "And _why_ do you want to speak to me?"

Mitsuru ignored him, instead opting to wander over to the desk where Kamui had stacked his research materials. "Ah, the 'family structure in historic Japan' essay. Popular with all freshman history teachers. Too bad, you could have borrowed mine. I got good marks on it, as I recall." Mitsuru glanced up at the smaller boy's confounded expression and smiled. It was almost as fun as teasing Hasukawa.

And he wasn't even trying. It was too bad, really. He didn't have the time today, but he was sure this kid could turn even more interesting shades of red than did Hasukawa. He skin tone was so pale, after all.

"Ikeda Mitsuru. I am Shinobu's roommate."

"I see." Actually, Kamui didn't see. In fact, he was feeling even more confused, if that was possible.

Mitsuru lifted bright gold eyebrows. "My roommate has been somewhat depressed lately."

Kamui cocked his head to one side. "Oh? Well, I can't say that Subaru-san _hasn't_ been depressed, but he very often is." He paused narrowing his eyes. "But he has been disturbed, which is somewhat more unusual."

"Does he tend to go with the flow? That's not the impression I gained when he visited Shinobu."

Ikeda meant, thought Kamui with some amusement, when Subaru had exorcised his would-be girlfriend. But he decided not to comment on that.

"No. I would not say that Subaru-san is in anyway socareless. But he is rarely disturbed, because everything is fate, and unchangeable, and he accepts that, fully."

In that, Mitsuru mused, the Sumeragi and his cousin were very alike. They had both allowed the inevitable to color the rest of their lives; they allowed those events to make everything else about their lives unavoidable and inevitable as well.

It was something that both violet-eyed teenagers wanted to prove untrue.

Kamui's essay was not written until very late that evening.

***

Shinobu slid on his reading glasses and analyzed the evidence.

Mitsuru had been missing for several hours the day before.

He had come back whistling and with sparkling eyes.

He hadn't said a word to Shinobu when he returned.

Shinobu's gray-green eyes narrowed in a scowl. This wasn't following the usual pattern, and that was worrisome.

It was seldom that Mitsuru had ever planned anything without Shinobu's input, but it was not unprecedented. However, always before, Mitsuru had let something out about the nature of his plots. 

He hadn't done that this time.

Shinobu slipped his glasses back off and let them fall to the desk with a faint clink. He rubbed at a headache that was beginning to settle in his temples.

He needed a cigarette. Unfortunately, the cause of his undue stress had confiscated them, and Shinobu hadn't gotten a chance to replenish them yet.

"Problem, Shinobu?" asked a cheery voice from across the room.

Mitsuru was sitting on the floor, leaned against Shinobu's bed, reading a manga. And smiling innocently.

"Oh, nothing major," replied Shinobu. He quickly wracked his mind for an explanation for his obvious stress. "Uh, Hasukawa and Igarashi were arguing earlier. I wasn't looking forward to trying to work something out between them again."

"You did pretty well the last time, I thought," said Mitsuru as he flipped a page and skimmed down the page. "But I wouldn't worry too much about it. They're both so passionate, that they are bound to argue. It's a release, if nothing else."

Not, continued Mitsuru to himself, that Hasukawa and Miya were what really concerned his roommate. No, he knew it was his own behavior that was worrying Shinobu.

It was kind of cute, really. Not that he would ever mention that to Shinobu.

Shinobu, like Hasukawa, disliked being teased. Unlike Hasukawa, it was unlikely to end with a punch to the face, but with something much more calculated and twisted, and it would be almost impossible to trace it back to his roommate.

There were limits to what even Mitsuru would do for the sake of a good laugh, and the threat of retaliation from Tezuka Shinobu was one of them.

***

Subaru peered over the top of his book at Kamui. He wasn't doing anything particularly suspicious; in fact, the boy was engrossed in the memorization of feline organs for his dissection quiz the next day.

Still, he couldn't shake the eerily familiar tingle he was getting up his spine. He'd gotten it anytime Hokuto had plotted something on his behalf, and it always been accompanied by a feeling a fear and dread, because anything Hokuto had plotted would at best make him turn myriad shades of red, and at worst humiliate him in front of all of Tokyo.

He could hardly imagine Kamui plotting at all, let alone something of Hokuto's scale. 

Kamui was doing _something_, though, because he wouldn't have this feeling if he weren't. Both his personal experience and his formal training told him that intuitions came in many forms, and some of those were very mundane. 

Kamui's usually clear and expressive violet eyes were giving nothing away, however. Subaru could see nothing but anxiety over his schoolwork and the ever-present dark sorrow that had darkened his expression for as long as Subaru had known him.

The object of his thoughts dropped the thick pile of notes he had been leafing through onto the table in front of him. "I hate biology."

"As much as trigonometry?" inquired Subaru.

"No," said Kamui, "nothing is _that_ bad. But biology is close."

"I could help you. Biology was one of my better subjects when I was still in school."

"Would you?" Kamui's eyes widened eagerly. "I'd really appreciate it; I have to pass this quiz tomorrow or sensei will assign me a tutor."

"It's not a problem," Subaru returned with a smile as he set aside the book he had been pretending to read.

"I'll treat you to tea tomorrow after school as thanks." Kamui held up a hand when he saw Subaru was about to protest. "I insist."

"Then I'd be happy to go. But for now, let's concentrate on this quiz."

Kamui smiled as he returned his attention to the separate parts of a cat's small intestine. His part of The Plan was complete. The rest was up to Ikeda.

And after that, everything was in the hands of Tezuka-san and Subaru.

***

Mitsuru had tossed out the invitation that morning before class when he had been standing in front of their mirror tying his tie.

"Do you want to go for tea this afternoon?" 

"Don't you have band practice?" asked Shinobu. He was already fully dressed and was at his desk, gathering his schoolbooks, and placing them into his bag.

Mitsuru shrugged into his jacket and started stuffing his own books into his bag. "Hiroshi-sensei is having a sectional for the woodwinds, so I'm free. Anyway, want to go? I thought we'd try this new place I heard about."

Shinobu shrugged. He had a feeling that whatever Mitsuru had been planning for the past week was coming to a head. "Fine with me. What new place?"

"The _Shi Ohana_ teahouse."

And so instead of going back to the dorm with Hasukawa and Shun, Mitsuru and Shinobu had left school grounds and walked towards downtown Tokyo.

It wasn't a long walk, because Ryokuto was situated on the edge that seperated the residential and commericial districts of the city. Soon the two roommates were in front of an older stone shop with the words _Shi Ohana_ painted on the window, along with a stylized floral design. It looked like a hundred other tea shops in Tokyo, and Shinobu idly wondered why it was so important that they go to this one.

The inside was much the same; a combination of booths, small tables, and a bar. The walls were papered with a pale ivory and their were traditional Japanese art prints framed and hung around the room.

"Not really your usual style, is it?" he noted to Mitsuru. Generally, Mitsuru could be counted on to choose the flashier and more popular places, brilliantly painted and modernly decorated. Shinobu, on the other hand, was more likely to choose shops more like this: quiet and understated. "The walls aren't acid yellow."

"I thought we'd try something different. Go ahead and pick a place to sit, and I'll get our order."

"I didn't tell you what I wanted."

"We've lived together for three years now, Shinobu," called Mitsuru over his shoulder as he walked up to the counter. "I think I know."

Probably so, thought Shinobu. He scanned the tea room; it wasn't very busy, there were at least a couple of more hours before the after-work rush came. There were only a few scattered high school students around, chatting before they went home for evenings of homework, dinner, and cram schools.

He noticed the slight boy with wavy brown hair in the CLAMP uniform before he noticed his taller companion. They were seated at a large table in a corner of the room. Then Shinobu's glance slid over to his companion and he stilled.

"Why don't we sit over there?" murmured Mitsuru from behind him.

At least he knew now what Mitsuru had been planning all week.

***

The café that Kamui had chosen was far enough away that they had to take the subway. 

The _Shi Ohana _teahouse was in an interesting part of the city, neither purely residential nor purely commercial, but a blend of the two.

The building was old, but the tea shop was new, the paint bright and glossy on the clear glass windows.

Subaru and Kamui sat at a large table meant for four in a quiet corner of the tearoom and ordered--jasmine tea and lemon wafers for Kamui and green tea and a blackberry scone for Subaru. Subaru barely touched his scone, and sipped at him tea.

"This is far from CLAMP Campus. How did you hear of it?"

"Ah, Segawa-kun told me about it. His cousins live in this area." It was a convincing lie, Kamui told himself. Segawa Keiichi could have very well have told him about it, and he could very well have cousins in this area of the city. 

Except that he hadn't told Kamui about it, and his now deceased parents had both been only children.

Subaru lifted an ebony-dark eyebrow but said nothing. He doubted that Segawa-kun had had anything to do with the choosing of this teahouse. His family had lived and worked in Nakano.

"How was your biology quiz today?" he inquired quietly, picking absently at the blackberries on his scone.

"If Aizawa-sensei's shocked expression was any indication, I think I did fairly well on it."

Subaru smiled slightly. "Have you really been doing so badly in biology as that?"

"Well, yes. It's not that the material is so difficult, but so much of it is memorization, and I don't really have the patience for it."

Priorities were interesting. Kamui rarely had the patience for school or homework. But when Subaru worked late, or just walked the streets of Tokyo late at night, Kamui was the only one with the patience to wait for him to come back.

Subaru was contemplating this when he heard the sharp sound of an indrawn breath. He looked up.

So this is what Kamui had been plotting this past week. He cast a glance across the table at his companion. Kamui met his gaze directly.

"Hello, Shinobu-san. Won't you and your friend join us?"


	3. Chapter 3

__

Disclaimer: X belongs to CLAMP. Koko wa Greenwood belongs to Nasu Yukie. I own some manga and some anime. That's about it.

Abandoned Dreams

Part 3

Midorino Mizu

At the Sumeragi's invitation, Mitsuru sat down. Shinobu did not. He stared first at his roommate, and then at the other violet-eyed boy.

Kamui was the first to get the point. "Well. I think I had better get back to the Campus, Subaru-san. I'll see you later this evening." As he rounded the table, he swiftly pulled out Mitsuru's chair and grabbed him by the arm. "Come on, Ikeda-kun. You promised to help me with my essay, remember?"

Shinobu waited until younger boy had pulled the bemused Mitsuru completely out of the shop before he sat down. He gazed out the window where he could see the chocolate-haired boy berating his much taller companion. He smiled. "Your friend is much stronger than he appears. He looks like he'd blow away in a breeze, but he managed to pull Mitsuru right out of here."

Subaru inclined his head as he sipped his tea. "He's certainly stronger than what most people think." With a faint clink, Subaru set his cup in it's saucer. "I suppose they meant well enough when they arranged this."

"Mitsuru always means well. Things don't always turn out the way we want them too, though. In fact, they rarely do." Shinobu looked up when he heard Subaru chuckle softly under his breath. "What is it?"

"Nothing. I was just thinking that the Sumeragi must be predisposed to that particular attitude." Well, most of them, at least. Hokuto had been the exception to that. Subaru split his almost untouched scone in half and handed half to Shinobu. 

Shinobu accepted it and took a bite. "Possibly. Though my brother wasn't particularly affected by it, if that's so. His reaction to the pressures of my father's expectations was to leave and not return."

"Do you blame him for that?" The Sumeragi nibbled on his half of the scone thoughtfully. 

"No. I just would not have been able to make the same decision."

Subaru nodded. Responsibility, that was something he could easily understand. It had been an ever-present weight on his shoulders for most of his life. First, he had been the responsible heir, then the responsible Clan Head.

And now, of course, the responsibility was even greater--now, he had the responsibility for the survival of humanity to consider as well.

His responsibilities had limited his choices and even suffocated his own teenaged dreams. Subaru was suddenly determined that Shinobu's did not do the same to him.

***

"So," said Mitsuru as he slung his schoolbag over his shoulder and sauntered down the street. "Does this essay actually exist, or was it purely fictional?"

"Oh, it exists, all right," laughed Kamui, an uncommon sparkle lighting his eyes. "I finished it at lunch, though."

"I see. So what are we going to do for the next couple of hours? Those two aren't going to sort themselves out quickly. They're both too" Mitsuru paused as he searched for the right word to describe the cousins' temperment,

"Self-reliant?" supplied Kamui.

"Stubbornly self-reliant," embellished the tall blond boy. "And that's not going to be changed any day soon. So what are we going to do until then?"

"Well, we _could_ go back to CLAMP Campus, but"

"But?"

"But," continued Kamui with a heavy sigh, "most of my housemates are insane."

"All of my dormmates are insane." Mitsuru paused a moment. "Including myself. The guys next door are pretty normal, though." If, he continued to himself, one forgot about Shun's long pink hair and overtly feminine appearance.

Kamui shot Mitsuru a level look. "_My_ next door neighbor wakes up with a level of energy that should only be reserved for those who have consumed large quantities of stimulants."

"Really?" Kamui nodded. Mitsuru shuddered. "That's inhuman."

"Tell me about it. So, do you have any suggestions?"

"Well, everything in the city will be getting crowded around now," mused Mitsuru as he glanced at his wristwatch. It was 4:30, and the high schools and junior highs would all have been dismissed. "We could go back to Greenwood, I suppose. There's the gauntlet to consider, however."

"Gauntlet?" asked Kamui, mystified.

"There are three girls' schools between here and there. They should all be letting out about now."

Kamui's eyes widened. "Three? Well, I can take it if you can."

"You shouldn't say things like that until you've experienced the terror personally."

Kamui decided he didn't like the almost somber tone in Mitsuru's voice.

***

They had fallen into another uncomfortable silence, and Subaru had resumed picking at his scone.

He knew what he wanted to say to Shinobu, he reflected. The words echoed in his mind, the remains of a thousand lost wishes. But he couldn't say them, he thought, without sounding hypocritical.

After all, who would listen to a man who had already given up on most of his dreams?

Shinobu was staring out the window at the sea of people bustling down the street. There were students in an array of uniforms, some salarymen skipping out of work early, women walking downtown for some afternoon shopping. All of them undoubtedly had problems of their own, had things that they had given up on.

The world always looked more carefree when you were viewing it from behind glass.

"I wonder if their lives are really as weightless as they seem," murmured Subaru.

Shinobu slanted his cousin a glance. "No one's life is without weight, Subaru-san."

Subaru met Shinobu's gaze evenly. "No, I don't suppose it is. But that doesn't mean that their lives are ruled by that weight, either."

Shinobu bent his head and stirred his cooling tea. "Neither of us are those people outside the window."

"No," agreed Subaru. "But we are like them. They have expectations to live up to, as well."

Shinobu's lips thinned. "My father would never forgive me if I were to study onmyoujitsu."

"So you said before."

"He would prefer it if I exiled myself, like Akira."

"But you want to learn 'jitsu. Why?"

Shinobu hesitated. He had never told anyone about the day his mother died. "My parents argued the day my mother died."

Subaru said nothing, but he leaned in closer. And Shinobu began to speak of what he had heard that day in his eighth year.

__

His parents had sent him to fetch tea.

Of course, he did very little of the fetching himself. The nurses were always eager to help him, mainly, he thought, because it gave them an opportunity to squeal over how cute he was.

It was annoying, but he tolerated it.

Neither Nagisa nor Akira were there that day--Akira was in the midst of his high school entrance exams, and his sister had been sent to Osaka to a school that was supposed to turn her into a portrait of perfect Japanese femininity.

Shinobu doubted that it would have its intended effect on Nagisa, but he was going to laugh when she came home with an atrocious accent.

He was on the way back to the room, balancing a tray with three cups of tea and a plate of ginger cookies carefully, where he stopped cold just outside his mother's hospital room.

They were arguing.

Shinobu had never heard his parents argue before; his father was domineering, and his mother was generally passive. But Tezuka Setsuko was stubborn when it came to something she really believed in.

Her youngest son's future was something she really believed in.

"Hidekazu, you /will/ send Shinobu to Kyoto, or I will haunt you from the grave."

Shinobu could almost see his father's disapproving frown. "Setsuko, you can't haunt someone. It's an impossibility. And I will not allow my son to be educated by those--those witch doctors!"

The boy standing frozen outside could almost feel his mother's outrage. "Hide--"

"No, Setsuko. And that's the end of that. I have an important meeting, this afternoon."

Tezuka Hidekazu strode out, not even noticing his son standing outside the door.

Tezuka Setsuko died at five o' clock that evening. Her youngest son was the only person present.

"I'm sorry," murmured Subaru. The words were more than inadequate. "So you want to honor your mother's wish. And you want to honor your father's wishes."

"And it's impossible to do both," finished Shinobu with a bitter smile.

"Then decide which is more important to you. You can't possibly live up to all of the expectations people place on you."

Shinobu sighed. "No. But I've done pretty well so far."

"The only expectations you have to live up to, Shinobu, are the one's you place on yourself. And those are the ones that are the most important, I think." Subaru glanced up at the clock mounted on the teahouse wall. It was getting late. "I have to go."

"A job?" inquired Shinobu, almost involuntarily.

"Yes," said Subaru as he shrugged into his ivory trench coat. "Do you want to come?" he offered.

Shinobu hesitated, and then shook his head no.

"Very well." Subaru left the table, paid for his tea and scone, and headed towards the door. He stopped cold in the doorway, and turned back to his young cousin. "On second thought, no. You're coming along."

"I thought it was my choice," murmured Shinobu dryly.

"It is. But you should know what the choice is, at least."

***

Mitsuru and Kamui peeked out from behind the corner of a worn brink building. In front of them was the seemingly innocent fortress of the enemy.

A girls' school. And out the front gates came an endless stream of chattering junior high girls in crisp white blouses and navy blue jumpers.

"When I give you the word," whispered Mitsuru. "Run like hell."

"Got it," replied Kamui breathlessly. After their experience passing the last academy, he was more inclined to be cautious. One thing was for certain.

He was going to have nightmares about Black Watch plaid skirts and black uniform blazers for the rest of his days.

"Now," murmured the older boy. The two of them shot past the front gates with incredible speed. But not quite incredible enough.

"It's Ikeda-sempai! And he has a new friend with him!"

"Oh, wow, he's _beautiful_."

"Even more beautiful then Tezuka-sempai!"

"Oh, no! They're getting away, hurry!"

Kamui felt, rather than heard, the stampede behind them. He exchanged a wild look with Mitsuru, and decided that it was not the time for hesitation.

He grabbed at the front of Mitsuru's shirt, and with a single burst of speed, carried them over the top of the building next door to the school. They landed softly on the ground.

Mitsuru turned at stared at the younger teenager. "I'm going to guess that this is something I shouldn't ask about."

"That would be an excellent guess."

"Got it. Well, Greenwood's straight ahead now. We managed to bypass the third school there by leaping over it."

"Thank the Lord for small favors."

"Agreed."

***

Subaru and Shinobu had walked, then rode the train, then walked again. Finally they arrived at a tiny shrine in a tiny park.

It was old, and it showed it's age. It was obvious that the shrine-keeper's tried their best to keep it up, but they didn't have much assistance in doing so.

Subaru pulled a worn and ragged silk cord that had once been a vibrant scarlet. Almost immediately, the door slid open revealing a tired lady of his grandmother's generation. Her white hair was styled neatly but plainly, her kimono was clean but clearly aged.

Koizumi Kimiko, the last priestess of the _Juu Kaji_ shrine, showed it's condition just as well as everything else around it did.

"Sumeragi-sama," she murmured, bowing her head. "Thank you for coming." She lifted her eyes, a vibrant blue that dominated her otherwise pale face. They flitted from Subaru's serious face to Shinobu's equally solemn coutenance. "You have brought someone with you?"

"A cousin," replied Subaru simply, allowing the elerly priestess to draw her own conclusions. "So you have a girl in your care who has been possessed?"

"I believe so," answered Koizumi-san softly. "Her relatives left her here, complaining that her behavior was erratic."

"I see. We will need to be alone, if that is the case."

"Of course, Sumeragi-sama." Kimiko led the two young men to the room where the girl rested, and then left them alone.

"Here," said Subaru, handing Shinobu a single slip of white paper. On the back was the Sumeragi symbol, a pentagram, and on the front some dark slashes of black ink that he recognized as being a middle Asian language. "This is an ofuda--a protection spell, in this case. All spells in onmyoujitsu are written in Sanskrit. Hold on to it. It will protect you if things get out of hand."

Then Subaru turned his back to his cousin and began setting up more ofuda in a pentagram around the young teenager lying on the _futon_ in front of him. When these were set up, he began to chant.

It wasn't as simple a job as banishing Misako had been. Shinobu, though he was loath to admit it, would have been able to send on the mostly cheerful teenage girl without much difficulty.

This was an entirely different matter; a matter of possession and banishment. It would take both skill and diplomacy to first extract the spirit for the girl, and then to persuade the spirit to move on to the next realm.

He wanted to learn how.

And that, Shinobu reflected with sheepish humour, was probably why Subaru had brought him along. He had already admitted a desire to lean the art. He would, in all probability have found a demonstration of what he could learn to control irresistible. 

If that had indeed been the Sumeragi Head's plan, it had worked perfectly.

"I still don't know how I'll handle Father," Shinobu murmured to himself.

"I think I will be able to work around your father, if I have to," replied Subaru, amusement lacing his voice. "I've been finished for five minutes now. Are you ready to leave yet?"

"I think so," replied his younger cousin.

The two walked outside. It had been twilight when they had arrived; it was full dark now. Shinobu tipped back his head and stared up at the sky. "There aren't many places in Tokyo where you can see the stars so clearly."

"No, there aren't," agreed Subaru softly. "Tokyo makes it's own stars."

The two men walked in mostly silence. In the strange way of cities, they were now closer to Shinobu's dormitory than they had been when they were at the café. Soon they reached the gates.

"Can you meet me on Wednesday evenings?" Subaru asked, tilting his head to the side. "The middle of the week is generally slow. Though there are occasionally, ah, unusual situations that crop up."

Shinobu gave his older cousin a piercing look. One day, he thought, he wanted to know what those unusual situations were. But it wasn't something he was going to get answered tonight. So he smiled. "Wednesdays are fine. I'll clear it with the dorm lady, so that I don't have to crawl in the window every night."

Subaru raised his jet eyebrows. "I can clear it with her tonight, if you'd like."

"No," smiled Shinobu. "I'll go in through the window tonight. Don't worry, we've all done it before."

He left Subaru standing at the gates, wondering just _why_ his cousin had done it before.

***

Kamui sat on the floor of Mitsuru's room and stared in puzzlement a the boy in front of him. He had a shock of bright pink hair, and he was thumping his head, hard, repeatedly against the table in font of him. Mitsuru had been tutoring him, but had long since given it up in favor of reading a manga instead.

"Are you _sure_ he's alright?" Kamui whispered to the boy next to him.

Kisaragi Shun shook a fall of pale pink hair out of his face and looked up at his roommate. "Oh, yeah. Don't worry about it; Suka-chan reacts like this to _everything_."

"I do not react like this to everything," retorted the boy across from them. Hasukawa Kazuya momentarily lifted his head to fix them both with a narrow-eyed glare before resuming his thumping.

Mitsuru snorted. "Right. Name one thing you _don't _overreact to."

"Don't bother," came a softly amused voice from the doorway. "Because you do react like this to everything."

Kazuya groaned into the pale wood under his face. "Oh, what's the point?"

"Exactly what we've been saying!" exclaimed Shun. "But don't worry, we like you anyway. Now, come on, we might as well go to bed. You're not going to get anything else meaningful done tonight."

Shinobu shifted as Shun pushed the half-conscious Hasukawa out of his room and shoved him into their own. He slanted Kamui a glance. "Subaru walked back with me. You could probably catch up with him, if you wanted."

Kamui nodded. "Then I'll be going now. It's been fun, Ikeda-kun. We'll have to do it again sometime."

"Preferably minus the junior high girls."

"Definitely without those." Kamui paused in the doorway and bowed slightly. "It was nice to meet you Tezuka-san. I hope I see you again, as well."

"Yes," replied Shinobu simply. Kamui smiled.

It was amazing just how alike Subaru and his cousin were, sometimes.

Mitsuru waited until Kamui had left the room and was well down the hall before he spoke.

"So you were with your cousin all this time?"

"Mm," grunted Shinobu as he unknotted his tie and folded it neatly in his drawer. "Yes. Remind me to tell Shun that I'll have to tutor him on Thursdays now."

"Aa."

There were a few moments of quiet, and then Shinobu felt a tissue box hit the side of his head. He blinked down at it. "What was that for?"

"Because I'll never get anymore information out of you than that," replied Mitsuru.

"Ah," Shinobu turned and placed the box on the shelf where it belonged. Then he continued with his methodical changing for bed.

Normalcy, such that it was, had returned to Greenwood again.

~fin

__

Author's Note: Well, that's it. Finally complete. Are Part Three came considerably faster than Part Two did. I'm almost impressed with myself.


End file.
